Showing up for the Muse

Sunday, August 2, 2015

I did not blog most of July for several reasons. Travel, exhaustion, and emotion kind of wrapped me up with a loss for words. Today my mom leaves for her new home with my sister in Europe. Over the last three years we have helped her move every summer into successively smaller living spaces. She wasn't happy. This move will be good for her, but it leaves me gutted. I have been used to calling her for no reason a couple times a week as I drive home from work. I am used to calling her with my fears and to count on her advise in all types of crisis. Most recently my sons were living with her. I counted on her to watch over them and keep me in the loop. I called her for gossip and political insight. I called on her for anything and everything. She tells great stories and loves unconditionally.

I guess it is time for me to be on my own, and let her go peacefully
into her new adventure across the sea and into a totally different time
zone. I will be alright. I will be alright. I will be alright.

Ro and I go way back. She taught art at the Kildonan school 7 years ago, after Jen died and I left. With the school across the street from my house, we lived as neighbors and often took walks together. We bonded over discussions of love, life, art, children and our appreciation of birds as mystical messengers. Ro possesses passion, a humble heart, and true empathy with those she meets. She is an excellent teacher and she has a great sense of humor... lending a constant twinkle to her eyes. I am truly lucky to have her as a friend.
Her paintings develop as individual tableaux...small still life arrangements with nuanced subtleties that lend themselves to be read as stories of momentous ideas in minutia. As a mother, daughter, sister, and lover, she brings to her painting a sense of the fullness and fragility of life that is grounded in her being able to recognize and value it's riches. Every thing Ro does is done with intention. She has done everything from miniature trompe l'oeil paintings to giant decorative murals. She is present. Her paintings can tell us stories that we would miss otherwise. I love, most of all, looking really close to her painted surfaces. They are polished and lacking any brushstroke. In that way they remind me of both Georgia O'Keeffe and Charles Sheeler.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Great thing about the Vermont Studio Center is that everyone
on the staff is an artist or a writer. The founder, Jon Gregg, has created a
world of his dreams. Each staff person and visiting resident is supported in their creative endeavors and Pax Cultura reigns.

Recently two of the staff artists really caught my attention. Lauren Turk works in the kitchen, and Trevor Corp works on
maintenance. Both of them make art that touches me. laurenturk.com

Corp's painting

Turk's sculpture

Turk sculpture, mixed media

Both of them work in a variety of media... sculpture, painting and the written word. Corp grew up in Johnson, and Turk has just arrived for a year's stint. They have a quiet demeanor, (unless you get Turk on the Karaoke stage), and their art is both whimsical and fearless.

Turk paintings

Corp's wooden clover leaf table

It has been a pleasure getting to see and experience all the art in Johnson at the studio center. So much to meditate on...

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Inspired by nature and her
camping trips, Basile spent her weeks at the #VermontstudioCenter carving giant
linoleum prints of the forest. Her art immerses you in the landscape. The wall
sized three panel print of the pine woods took her about three hours of constant
hand rubbing to print. She also carved a wood panel with the Vermont maple and
the state bird, the Hermit Thrush, to create a unique design for wall paper. To
relieve her sore hands, Jennifer lit the stage at the Downtown karaoke night.
She rallied everyone to play games and partied with a generosity of spirit that
touched my heart. She is an artist from Long island who now lives and teaches
in Miami. The girl is my homie.

TILLY STRAUSS

Tilly Strauss relocated to the
southern side of Miami from Dutchess County NY. Her whimsical works both hide and reveal a
domestic quietude with restless escapism. Contrived out of found text,
poetry, paint and soul searching, her studio work is featured on the
website www.tillystudio.com